The new CBA which was first announced last August but released in full in April had a number of changes in it, including that starting with the 2025 league year, all contracts have to be guaranteed (as compared to semi-guaranteed contracts) and changes to short-term contracts which has changed how teams construct their rosters throughout the season. 

A guaranteed contract is one that a team cannot terminate prior to the end of its term due to performance, injury, or needing roster space. Teams can only buy-out one guaranteed contract a year because the cash to buy out starts to count against their salary caps. Comparatively, semi-guaranteed contracts can be terminated at any time ahead of the roster freeze for a season (which usually occurs with about a month left in the regular season). There are no limits on the number of semi-guaranteed contracts that can be terminated in a season. (There also is no public transparency into whether older contracts are guaranteed or semi-guaranteed)

Under the previous CBA there were only five types of short-term contracts — which could be guaranteed or semi-guaranteed) : National Team Replacement, Season-Ending Injury, Short-Term Injury, Goalkeeper Replacement, or loaned Player contracts. 

With the elimination of any new semi-guaranteed contracts (the ones still under contract will eventually run out), the league expanded a bit on the available short-term contracts and broke them up into three main buckets: roster relief contracts, salary cap exempt contracts, and amateur players. Additionally, all short-term contracts are guaranteed. 

Roster relief contracts can be signed for National Team Replacement, Season-Ending Injury (SEI), Short-Term Injury (45-Day injury list), Goalkeeper Replacement, Maternity/Parental Leave, or Mental Health Leave. The Maternity/Parental Leave and Mental Health Leave relief contracts are new. Teams are also allowed to sign up to four Salary Cap Exempt players who must be signed to the league minimum salary but do not count toward the team salary cap. 

Amateur players – a player who has not signed a letter intent to enroll in college or is not enrolled in college, but they are only allowed to play in Exhibition Games and Unofficial Tournaments. In pre-CBA years, amateur players were allowed to play in official league games but were defined very vaguely, “An amateur Player is any person other than a professional Player. An amateur Player may not receive or retain any remuneration for playing except expenses directly related to a game or games which have actually been incurred by the Player.”

Comparing 2024 short term contracts to 2025 short term contracts is hard not only because of the changes to the CBA, but also because of the number of FIFA Breaks and the existence of the NWSL x LIGA MX Summer Cup (an official NWSL tournament). 

Over the 2024 season, 36 players were signed to short-term contracts, with eight of those having more than one short-term contract. Thus far in 2025 there have been 25 players with short-term contracts and an additional (at least) eight players who appeared on July friendly gameday rosters. One big change from the fan side is that under the new CBA, teams have done a much better job at announcing the lengths of the short-term contracts compared to previous years.